The Worst Christmas Jobs 圣诞特辑 5

Medieval Christmas was a weird¹ mixture of Christianity and Pagan customs. Along with the boar's head no Christmas feast was complete without the giant Yule Log. If you've ever enjoyed a slice of chocolate Yule Log, you may be surprised that it was originally a fertility symbol from the old Viking feast of Yula.

The Yule Log had to burn throughout 12 days of feasting, so they needed the biggest tree in the forest. This meant there was a worst job attached. The Yule Log feller had to set off in the harshest mid-winter weather to take on his toughest challenge of the year.


"Which one’s out, Andy? "
"I think this one here. What, we drop it that way, (Yeah.)that it'll be easy…easy to drag out. One ax, one tree."
"Me?"
"Yeah."
"Oh, there're about 7 of these guys."
"Yeah, but we...we've all done it before, so... here you go."
This is hard work with 9th century technology.

"Andy(yeah?), I manage to get a lot bark off."
"It's a start, I suppose."

After half an hour, my initial enthusiasm had melted away in a large pool of sweat. And this was pine. With oak or ash, your Yule Log could be twice as thick as this weighing several tons.

"Yes, oh, look at that. Excellent, oh what a satisfying feeling!"

Even once the tree's down, there's more hard slog trimming scores of branches. Fortunately this time my fellow Vikings joined in. Then the entire bulk of the Yule Log has to be dragged slowly home.

At Yula time, it was the death of the old year, and a new year was going to be born and that's the reason you need fertility, so you went out into forest and you found the largest log you could see, the largest tree, and you cut it down.

So the log itself is a fertility symbol.

Yeah, yes a fertility symbol , yeah, and it needed to be green, because it should contain the juice of nature. During Yula time, you needed to drink. You drank to Odin(v), you drank to Vrai(v) and you drank to Nyor(v) which also was a fertility guardian², and you were dependent upon these gods to get a good harvest for the next year.

Andy, what do you think the blokes were doing?

These guys have been up since first light, they've worked all day, they have probably not eaten, hardly anything. So now it's just, it's food and beer and warm.
It's just like X‘mas(Christmas) nowadays, isn't it?

Yeah, it's exactly the same, I mean, it's just, this is the place to be. It's as simple as that, especially after the day they would be out of it...

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Yula n.=Yule 圣诞节，或圣诞季节
For modern Witches, Yule (from the Anglo-Saxon （盎格鲁-撒克逊） 'Yula', meaning 'wheel' of the year) is usually celebrated³ on the actual Winter Solstice (冬至), which may vary by a few days, though it usually occurs on or around December 21st. It is a Lesser⁴ Sabbat（Sabbath 安息日）or Lower Holiday in the modern Pagan calendar, one of the four quarter-days of the year, but a very important one.

drag out v 把…拖出来

Odinn. (北欧神话)奥丁神(司艺术、文化、战争、死者等之神)

Vrai adj & n（法语）真实的，此处也应指保佑丰产的神

warm n. 保暖物

1 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

2 guardian   

n.监护人；守卫者，保护者

参考例句：

• The form must be signed by the child's parents or guardian. 这张表格须由孩子的家长或监护人签字。
• The press is a guardian of the public weal. 报刊是公共福利的卫护者。

3 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

4 lesser   

adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地

参考例句：

• Kept some of the lesser players out.不让那些次要的球员参加联赛。
• She has also been affected,but to a lesser degree.她也受到波及，但程度较轻。